Also called Saint Lucy's Day, Luciadagen, Santa Lucia, Lucia Night, Lussinatta, Feast of Saint Lucy
The feast of Saint Lucy on 13 December, once the longest night of the year under the old calendar. In Sweden and the rest of Scandinavia the eldest daughter, dressed in white with a crown of candles, wakes the household with coffee and saffron buns to carry light into the darkest time.
Tonight's moon is read when the page loads.
Take care: Use battery candles in any crown worn on the head; real candles in hair have caused serious burns. Keep table candles in stable holders away from paper and fabric. Saffron is safe in baking amounts but should not be eaten in large quantities.
Syracuse, Lucy's home city, parades her silver statue on 13 December. Sicilians recall a famine that ended on her feast when grain ships reached the harbour, and they eat whole grains instead of bread that day, usually cuccìa, boiled wheat berries with ricotta and honey.
Uses: Wheat berries, Ricotta, Honey
In Trentino, Friuli and parts of Lombardy, Veneto and Emilia-Romagna, Lucy arrives with her donkey on the night of 12 December and brings gifts to good children. Children leave coffee for Lucy and a carrot for the donkey, and must not peek or she will throw ashes in their eyes.
Uses: Coffee, Carrot
In 1927 a Stockholm newspaper ran a competition to choose the city's Lucia, and the Skansen open-air museum held a public celebration in 1928. Towns, schools and churches now hold Lucia processions, and the custom spread through Scandinavia after World War II.
Lucy of Syracuse was a Sicilian martyr who died around 304 under Diocletian. An inscription in Syracuse from the 4th century already names her feast, and it became a feast of the whole Church in the 6th century. Her name comes from lux, light, and legend says she carried food to Christians hiding in the catacombs with candles on her head to keep her hands free. Under the Julian calendar, 13 December fell near the winter solstice, which is why John Donne called it the shortest day.
In Scandinavia the night was once a dark and feared one called Lussinatta, when spirits were abroad. The modern Swedish custom of a girl in white with a candle crown grew in western Swedish homes and was popularised from 1927, when a Stockholm newspaper chose an official Lucia. Sweden switched to the Gregorian calendar in 1753, but the feast stayed on 13 December, still loved as a festival of light in the darkest weeks.
The night of 5 December in the Alpine countries, when Saint Nicholas brings gifts to good children and his horned companion Krampus threatens the naughty with birch switches. Masked Krampus and Perchten runs are also said to chase off the dark spirits of winter.
An evergreen wreath is a ring of fir, pine, holly or ivy hung on the door or laid flat with candles through the dark of winter. Its circle stands for unending life, and the Advent wreath with candles lit week by week began with a Hamburg pastor, Johann Hinrich Wichern, in 1839.
A large log brought in with ceremony and burned on the hearth at Christmas or the winter solstice, with a piece saved to protect the house and light next year's log. The French bûche de Noël cake is its edible descendant.
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